Magazines in PDF and eReaders

I’ve been wondering about an eReader is a good idea.  Sony just released their Sony Reader eReader and I liked the feel and look of it.  Borders had a demo of it at their store.  In my thinking about whether I could justify purchasing an eReader I started to think about what I would actually read on it.  First of all, most of the books I’ve read in the last year I couldn’t find in an (legal) eBook format.  The publishers just don’t do it.  Scanning through the Sony Connect store (where you can purchase eBooks at a reasonable discount off the paper copy for the Sony Reader) I did see many books I wouldn’t mind reading, but not any of the ones I’ve got on my current “buy” list. 

The next thing I thought about was magazines.  This came to me as I got into bed and noticed the massive stack of MSDN magazines on my night stand.  I’m pretty far behind on these.  I can’t say an eReader would make me keep up, but it would make them much more accessible when I have time to read them.  Now, the Sony Reader only lets you view texts stored in non DRMed (procted) PDFs, txt files and a sony proprietary format.  Of course other readers also use propriatary formats (hence another problem with eReaders).  I went on the look out to see if MSDN offers it’s back issues in PDF format.  They offer the complete articles online anyway, right?  Well, it seems they DO offer downloadable .chm files of their issues.  Not quite what I had in mind.  Code Magazine offers their “focus” issues in PDF form, but not their regular issues.  So, I sent both of them an email to see if they were looking into this service.

This is what I got back from MSDN:

“In regard to your recent inquiry, unfortunately this is not a service we provide.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”

I really want to reply and say, “No $#!*.  I can tell that from the lack of the PDF link on the website.  My question was are you looking at doing this in the future and what are the reasons why you don’t do it now?” 

From Code Magazine I get a little better response:

“Hi Mike, This is something that we are currently working on to have on the website. Thank you,”

Excellent!  And from the Circulation Manager no less.  Vs. from someone named Tracey (okay, I know that is the difference between the massive behemoth that is MSDN Mag and Code Magazine, but come on).

So, I’m still thinking about the usefulness of a separate eReader device for reading.  You definately get much better battery life than on my tablet or PPC phone which would be the alternatives I have now.  I’m currently leaning toward not getting one because there just isn’t what I want to read available to put on it.